Review of 11-25-2000 episode (MD-608; some spoilers)

This review can also be found at:

	http://www.nic0lesullivan.org/md608.txt

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The Cut-Away: At the "Excellence in Television Awards," a woman
(Alex Borstein) wins an award for a documentary is entitled "I
Will Survive: Tales of a Third World Nothing" (this title, and
the titles of all the nominees, seem tailored to PBS's liberal
demographic), yet inexplicably, the camera keeps cutting to James
Gandofini (Will Sasso), who turns away from the camera and even goes
to the rest room to (unsuccessfully) avoid the camera. This segment is
essentially making fun of how the cameramen at these awards ceremonies
will cut to different VIPs in the audience, often for reasons not apparent
to the viewer at home, and how the they do it more often than is warranted.
The fact that this segment revolves around a very simple premise isn't much
of a handicap because Sasso's peformance is rather good; also, it doesn't
last long.

Hammer Time: As if the last ten years didn't happen, M.C. Hammer (Aries
Spears) returns with his own show in which he interviews other people
blessed with fifteen minutes of fame and tries to sell stuff that he
bought when he was rich. His guest are Gerardo (Nelson Ascencio) and
Darva Conger (Stephanie Weir). Having been unfortunate enough to have
lived through Hammer and Gerardo's fifteen minutes of fame, I found
this to be funny; also amusing are the jokes aimed at Conger's status
as Bimbo of the Year ("I'm stripping and having the best time of my
life...it's so spiritually fulfilling") - and an insult aimed at Geena
Davis, probably because of her new TV show (there was a similar joke on South
Park recently). Good line: "When we first met, we were pop music icons.
What the hell happened?" [Actually, I think "Please Hammer Don't Hurt
'Em" is still the biggest-selling rap album of all time, even though
the biggest hit off the album was a thinly-veiled rip-off of "Superfreak."]
Gerardo for his part takes credit for the whole Latin explosion.
Hammer impressions aren't that unique - there was one
on "Hype" a few weeks ago (if memory serves, it had Hammer planning
a movie comeback a la Eddie Murphy), but this one was accurate enough,
and overall the segment was good, although you have to be old enough
to remember the era of Hammer to fully appreciate this one - still, most
of the audience probably got it.

Melina and Lida: This time the bodega girls (Nicole Sullivan, Debra
Wilson) are recruits to a fire department. Michael McDonald is the
unfortunate fireman who must train them. They attack each other with
fire extinguishers, and Lida gets mouth to mouth from the fireman. This
was a disappointment for a Melina and Lida sketch, and even the most
juvenille viewers likely found the sexual inneundoes rather tiresome:
e.g. "I have a fire...in my pants," or when the fireman says that an
extinguisher can make a fire go down in a hurry, Lida says "that sounds
like Melina on a first date." Still, there are some good moments here:
e.g. a classic Lida malapropism in which Lida refers to "CPR" as "C3PO."
Nevertheless, this is probably one of the weakest Melina and Lida sketches.

Hospital: In a hospital, an elderly woman (Stephanie Weir) mocks
people who fall victim to lung cancer and gunshot wounds because they
failed to heed warnings. She goes as far as to insinuate that a man
who smoked and got lung cancer may have been illiterate; otherwise
he would have seen the Surgeon General's warnings in cigarette ads
and would not have smoked; then she asks a gunshot victim who was
shot in a hunting accident if he ever saw the news. This was quite funny
and while perhaps not worthy of the "Best of Mad TV," is still a
throwback to the high quality sketch comedy the show used to manufacture
routinely during the first two seasons of the show. Hopefully, the
writers won't beat this concept to death by recurring the character.

Stuart Gets Kidnapped: Stuart (Michael McDonald) is kidnapped by a
white trash couple (Christian Duguay, Nicole Sullivan) who attempt
to ransom him for ten thousand dollars. Stuart holds a chicken and
smokes a cigarette. While I don't like Stuart and nothing in this
segment mitigated my dislike of the character, this segment was made
tolerable by good acting from Duguay and Sullivan as the trashy biker
guy and his girlfriend. There was also a good comedic moment when the
girlfriend, who initially wanted to keep Stuart, is so repelled by
the sight of Stuart with his pants off that she asks her husband how
much he thinks they can get for him. Nice touch: the rotary phone at
the white trash couple's house.

Alex Borstein and Will Sasso at the Opening of How the Grinch Stole
Christmas: In the tradition of all the other segments in which
Borstein and Sasso interview people at movie openings/awards ceremonies,
here they are at the opening of the new Grinch movie. Jenny McCarthy
is gregarious, as always (they should have asked her "Whatever happened
to Chris Hardwick?") And everyone cheers when Frankie Muniz is
interviewed. Flea and Anthony Kiedis were there, too (a friend of mine
who once worked as a bouncer in Detroit had the pleasure of ejecting
Kiedis one night; I suppose ejecting a famous patron is the apex of
one's career as a bouncer, though I never found out if he felt this
way). This was not as good as the "Charlie's Angels" segment,
but still had its moments.

How'd You Get to Be So Sweet: Two blind beggars panhandle an an
Amtrak station; they apparently know only one song and they don't
even do that song very well. The brother strums an accoustic guitar
while his sister attempts to hit a triangle while they both sing.
The characterization was good - they succeeded in making these two
rather pathetic people completely unlikeable - but still the material
here was relatively weak; they just keep singing the song over and
over while they talk about how they were the victims of toxic waste.
Still I suppose it resonates with anyone who has seen the sort of 
dross that tends to occupy train stations, especially in urban
areas.

Cypress Hill: Cypress Hill, probably best known for their pop/rap
crossover hit "Insane in the Brain" (1993), appears on "Mad TV,"
basically to promote their new album, "Live at the Fillmore." Although
it's unlikely that this album will restore their popularity, rap crossover
has never been bigger than it is now. Still, there isn't much of
a chance of Cypress Hill winning over the younger generation with
this material - I myself am no longer young, and even I prefer Kid
Rock and Limp Bizkit to Cypress Hill. Still, this was a competent effort
that should satisfy their core fans.
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MD-608 was weaker than either of the previous two episodes, with no
sketch being particularly praiseworthy, perhaps with the exception of
"Hospital." Even the Melina and Lida sketch was disappointing, although
Nicole Sullivan fans were probably pleased to see her in two segments
(not to mention the "Titus" commercial during one of the breaks in the
second half). Still, hardly any of this material merits inclusion on
an "A-list" of "Mad TV" segments. [5/10]

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